Las Nazarenas Church

In the mid-seventeenth century an Angolan man, enslaved and living in the Pachacamilla quarter of Lima, painted an image of the crucified Christ on the adobe wall of a meeting place used by the African community. In 1655 an earthquake destroyed the surrounding structures and the wall with the painting was left standing. Attempts to erase it failed, devotion grew, and a chapel and then this church were built around the wall, which remains in place behind the main altar. The Señor de los Milagros became the central devotion of Lima: each October a copy of the image is carried through the city in a procession that draws hundreds of thousands of people over several days, all in purple, and it is the largest religious procession in the Americas. The church itself is modest; the significance is the image, the wall it is painted on, and what grew from it.

What you actually see

• The wall - the original adobe painting behind the main altar.
• The origin - an image painted by an enslaved Angolan man in Pachacamilla.
• The 1655 survival - the wall left standing when the earthquake destroyed the rest.
• The October procession - the largest religious procession in the Americas.

When to go

Year-round. October is the month of the Señor de los Milagros, when the church and surrounding streets are overwhelmed with pilgrims. Thirty to sixty minutes otherwise.

Honest expectations

The building is architecturally plain. Access to the image area is restricted during services and effectively impossible in October. The surrounding streets are busy and require normal city caution. Photography rules are enforced.

Nearby

The Plaza San Martín is south; the Plaza Mayor is east.